trying it out: Tutu tutorial

Last year I did a post about a tutu I made, but this year I decided to make one that was more tutu like, and less skirt like. I have seen those no-sew tutu's before, and I followed the same idea here, but I wanted petals in my tutu's.

supplies

a roll of tulle, usually found near the wedding isle at a craft store, the more tulle, the fuller the skirt. I just used one 25 yard roll for each tutu

petals, I got this box 50% off at Hobby Lobby, and I barely made a dent in it. For the pink Tutu I happened to find a bag at the dollar store, who can beat $1

also you need: matching ribbon, elastic, for the waist, and thread for sewing, a fake flower and hot glue gun

I measured how long I wanted my tutu to be (I just measured my little girls hip to just above her knee) and I doubled that (since I will be folding my strips in half) and added about 2 inches, to make up for the knot that is tied at the end. I just made as many strips as the roll would make, I believe I had 30 strips in the pink, for the 18 month old, and 20 strips in purple, for the almost 4 year old

I folded the strips in half, length wise, and sewed around the edges, stuffing some petals in each end, before I finished sewing it shut (I had three petals in each end). You can see the thread in my tutu's, which I am okay with, but next time I might try either turning the strips inside out, after they are sewn together, or using invisible thread.

I measured how long I wanted the elastic waistband (just measured right on my kid) and sewed it into a loop. Then I tied the strips on, making a look in the middle, and wrapping it around the elastic by pulling the two ends through it

here is what it looks like with them all tied on. If you like this look, you can leave it like this (although you may want to do more strips than I did, if you are going to leave it like this, so the elastic is hidden better)

I sewed a matching satin ribbon, If you get a wide enough one, you could actually fold it over the elastic, covering both sides, and then sew it. I just sewed it on the outside. Remember, the waistband needs to be stretchy, so I pulled my elastic as I sewed (which bunched the ribbon at the end). You may prefer to use a zig-zag stitch, so it stretches better. I just used a straight stitch, but had it set at the longest stitch length.

Leave a long tail, so you can tie a bow